1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of cooking equipment and utensils. More specifically the present invention relates to a fondue fork for engaging and holding food items while submerging each food item in heated fondue liquid to cook and season the food items, the fondue fork including an elongate fork body and a fork distal end with two fork tines and having a fork proximal end with a handle and a stopwatch timer having a timer actuating means for timing the emersion of a given type of food item within a given fondue liquid to assure that the food item is cooked sufficiently but not excessively. The user may determine through trial and experience what the optimum cooking times are for various types of food items and then immerse each given type of food item for that optimum length of time, or a restaurant may provide suggested optimum times.
The fork handle preferably is elongate in the same direction as the fork body. The stopwatch timer preferably is contained within the fork handle and has a digital timer display panel exposed through a display panel opening in the side of the handle, and the timer actuating means preferably takes the form of a button. The timer includes a timer circuit and a timer power source. The timer circuit is constructed so that depressing the actuating button a first time starts the timer, depressing the actuating button a second time stops the timer so that the timer displays the elapsed time, and depressing the actuating button a third time clears displayed data from the timer display panel so that the timer is ready for the next use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have long been forks for engaging food items, and specifically fondue forks for engaging food items while they are dipped into various fondue liquids. A limitation of these prior fondue forks has been that they do not assist the user in determining how long to immerse a given type of food item in a fondue liquid for full but not excessive cooking.
A prior fork which includes a timer is disclosed in Dubus, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,089, issued on Jun. 6, 1995. Dubus, et al., includes a fork for assisting in weight loss having a countdown timer connected to the fork handle for counting down a pre-programmed time period to alert a user of when to take another bite of food and thus to slow the rate of eating. Dubus, et al., is not suited to measuring cooking times of various fondue food items because the countdown timer measures only one pre-programmed time period and thus different cooking times for different types of food items in different types of fondue liquids cannot be measured and a user is not free to select cooking times at his or her own discretion.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a fondue fork which includes a stopwatch timer for timing the immersion of each food item in a fondue liquid, such that an optimum immersion time can be determined and measured for each of various types of food items in each of various types of fondue liquids.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a fondue fork in which the stopwatch timer is contained within the fork handle to be compact and which exposes a timer display on a handle side surface.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a fondue fork in which the timer generates a signal at each of a series of pre-set intervals to alert the user of time elapsed and which optionally displays the current date and time.
It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such a fondue fork which is suitable for measuring cooking times other than immersion time in a fondue liquid, and which is durable and inexpensive to manufacture.